Vans
CALL TO ARMS
GOODTIMES, GRAFFIX, SMELLY
CURB SUMMER TOUR, 1996
STORY AND PHOTOS BY DONNY HUMES
April 1996
One day in the
spring I received a
call from Greg Wit
at Goodtimes
Skateboards asking
me if I wanted to be
tour manager for a
Midwest Summer Tour
with his team. The call
came at a perfect time.
and I promptly said yes.
Friday, July 26, 1996
Three months later, the
tour information and
Itinerary were FedExed to my
house in Columbus, Ohio, and
the next thing I knew, I was on
board a plane to Chicago,
Illinois, to hook up with the
Goodtimes and Graffix pros.
Our flight from Columbus left at
1:25 pm and landed in Chicago the
exact same time, due to the one-hour
time change. It was kind of weird and I
thought to myself, "We have just gone
through the Skateboard Twilight Zone."
We got off the plane and searched for
Greg's friend, Chris Patanude, who drove
the van down from Minnesota. He was to
be my connection with the money, the van
and the skaters, but Brian Seber, amateur
skater for Goodtimes and Smelly Curb, found
us instead. Out of the airport and into the van.
The tour officially started.
Left: Nobody does body jars
Sike Lincoln Ueda, who goes
way overhead in Chicago
You're going to the
hospital if you miss the
tail on this one. Above:
Peter Hewitt can't toll
the difference
between horizontal
and vertical
surfaces; this
inability to grasp
basic concepts
of physics
allows him to
do things like
this tall wall
ride to
fake at
Westside
Skates
On board we had me and Andy Hoffer from
Smelly Curb in Ohio. Darren "Cookiehead"
Jenkins and Mark Partain from Graffix Skateboards
In San Diego, and "Amish Boy" Brian Seber from
Pennsylvania. Later on we would hook up with Dave
LeRoux, one of the original switch vert skaters.
After a short drive, we arrived at the hotel. We
ditched our stuff and hit the streets of Chicago.
There's just something about street skating in big
cities that make it so much more fun. Probably all the
people and taxis that can be dodged and tons of
unusual, skateable obstacles.
Saturday, July 27
We arrived at the Hard Rock Cafe for the vertical competi-
tion. The threat of rain was ominously approaching us, but the
contest wasn't until the afternoon. It was morning and the
pros were still practicing. Bored with watching the practice ses-
sion. Brian. Andy, Mark, and I took off to a local indoor
skatepark called Scraps. At first the guy wasn't going to let us
skate because we didn't have our "brain buckets" (helmets), so we
had to turn to subliminal brainwashing to convince him that we had
to ride. It worked, because the next thing I knew, we were out on the
street course, dodging all the rollerbladers. Parents began complain-
Ing to the owner that we were skating too fast and not letting others
have a turn. The guy who ran the skatepark seriously came up to us
and said we needed to chill. What a joke.
We broke out of there, sweating like mad, and drove back to down-
town Chicago in a downpour of rain and a two-hour traffic jam. I thought
for sure the contest had been rained out, but when we finally arrived. It
was dry there and not much rain had fallen. I guess we missed the contest
for a little skateboard anarchy.
Sunday, July 28 Hard Rock Vert Contest
The contest was rained out. They took the results
from yesterday's cut and placed them accord-
ingly. They had a Hardest Trick contest,
and Colin McKay won with a
Caballerial nosegrind off the
The crew demonstrates that there's more than one way to be a poser
extension. Danny Way
came close behind,
trying a 360°
lip noseslide. Jason Ellis announced and was lay-
ing down some lines, Lincoln Ueda was doing
the hugest body jars, and Bucky Lasek was point-
ing Indy airs straight down. The rain came down
so hard when it was all over that everyone went
running for cover.
We regrouped with Peter and Cookiehead and
added another skater to the tour: Rune Glifberg.
Our next stop: South Bend, Indiana, the first demo
of the tour.
Sunday Evening South Bend, Indiana
We arrived in South Bend at Westside Skates
where we were greeted by Bob, the owner. We got to
skate a little while before they closed, but we really
wanted to rest. We ended up at some guy named
Matt's house, where it was kind of a weird scene
with a gun on the table and lots of underage kids get-
ting fucked up. What else is there to do in Indiana?
We tried to maintain, go to sleep, wake up in the
morning, and do the demo.
Monday, July 29
Demo day at Westside Skates. It was totally jacked
because the owner made everyone else sit down and
watch while we skated. We all wanted the kids to
ride with us and persuaded Bob to let them. Thank
God we had Rune Glifberg with us. He really was the
whole demo. We collected the cash and went on our
way to the next demo in Traverse City, Michigan.
Tuesday, July 30
Breakfast time. We ate at the local diner and
got charged up. After that we went to the shop and
checked out the scene. The demo wasn't supposed
to start until 3:00 pm, so we had some time to
kill. The shop people told us about the "open
space," a part of a park by Lake Michigan that's
cool to skate. We got there and it was a long.
waxed ledge not more than five feet away from the
edge of the water, so every time you did a trick and
bailed, you had to hope your board didn't go into
Lake Michigan. It was the complete dork session
with Peter definitely showing his true colors imi-
tating and mocking a hilarious run that included.
boneless ones, acid drops, wall jams and sick cary-
ing capabilities. Boredom does make a man
Insane, but Peter was letting loose.
We got to the demo and it was in this tennis court
area of a park. Total old school, wooden obstacle
course with tons of hungry little skaters everywhere.
It was a sick scene that was super fun. We skated
all evening. Cheeched and Chonged in the van till i
turned completely white, and had a blast. The kids
there were so amped on getting free product that we
seriously had to use force on some of the little skate
rats. They were grabbing things out of our van and
hoarding stickers by the hundreds. All in all, it was
a killer time and one of the best places on the tour.
But, the fun was not over yet. It seemed it was only
beginning and the night was still young. At this
point, Cookiehead hooked up with this hottie named
Marcle and invited her and all her friends back to
our hotel. The party was about to start rocking. The
next thing we knew, there were twenty-five people in
our hotel, drinks were going down, Rune was
rolling the cone, and chicks were everywhere. Tour
life all of the sudden wasn't too bad after all. Well. I
spoke too soon. The lady who ran the hotel knocked
on our door and claimed that the cops were on
their way so everyone must leave. That was OK with
us because we were about to go out into the woods
for a bonfire with the local town skaters. Too many
beers later, we were out in the woods having a ball.
Wednesday, July 31 Left Traverse City for
Kalamazoo, Michigan
Last night's activities worked us and we were all
In slow motion-ville. Luckily today was a driving
day, and everyone got to sleep on the five-hour
drive ahead of us to K-Zoo Sk8- Zoo. We didn't
even have to go there, but we wanted to check
out the skatepark.
We got into Kalamazoo and headed downtown
to get directions to the park from the local
skateshop, Piranha Alley. As we were skating down
the street on the way there, we got pulled over by
the fuzz. The pig yelled at us like we were bandits
and told us to get off our boards and walk or we'd
be arrested. Anyway, we got to the shop, got our
Info, and took off for the skatepark.
The animals took over the
K-Zoo Sk8-Zoo and Brian
Rensberry drifted nose-
bones to takie
The park was your ordinary Indoor, Masonite won-
derland with a sick ass spine mini-ramp. There was
a heavy session going on, and Hewitt and Rune
killed the ramp with speed and authority. Too bad
we were all cooked from partying and driving or we
might have lasted a little bit longer.
Thursday, August 1, 1:00 am Chicago, Il
The drive from Michigan went quickly, and
before we knew it, we were checking into our hotel.
Seber, Partain, Hoffer, and I left to go street skating
and look for an all-night diner. We hit up the
Golden Nugget and were soon satisfied. We got
charged up and hit the streets of Chicago once
again for a late-night cruise.
Friday, August 2
We got to the contest and there were tons of
rollerbladers and BMXers everywhere. On the vert
ramp were numerous pros getting their practice runs
in. A lot of the pros who were in town for the Hard
Rock contest had left for a demo at the Olympic
Closing Ceremonies in Atlanta, so there weren't
that many skaters entering the competition. Stand-
outs were Bob Burnquist, Max Schaaf, Jason Ellis,
Peter Hewitt, Bucky Lasek, Ben Pappas, Tas Pappas,
Rune Glifberg, and rookie pro, Phil Hajal. The street
obstacle course was big and spread out. It seemed as
if it was built for BMXers
After watching the vert practice, we decided to go
skate Chicago's famous seawall. It had a perfect
transition that went up to an over-vert pocket-just
fine for ollies and plain ol' carving.
Saturday, August 3
Today was the street contest. Not too many pros
entered. Adam McNatt 50/50 grinded the long
handrail, so he deserved to win. I missed the con-
test, actually, because I was downtown filming and
shooting photos. Didn't miss much anyway.
because it seemed these contests were geared
towards rollerbladers and BMXers. There were tons
of these freaks rolling around in their big, baggy
jeans and kooky haircuts.
That night in the hotel, we got up on the roof, got
some beers, got loose, and started throwing things
off the top, which was about twelve stories up. That
was fun for a while, then we went into our room
and started throwing stuff out our window. We
stopped for a while, but then Andy, who was sitting
next to the window, accidently elbowed a half-full
glass bottle of beer out the window, which landed
right by the doorman at the front of the hotel. Andy
closed the window and the curtains. A few minutes
later, we received a visit from two very large dudes
from the hotel. They asked us what kind of beer we
were drinking and had the broken bottle and label
from the same beer we had. Whoops... We told
them our story, which was true for the most part,
and got off. Anarchy rules.
Sunday, August 4
Finally, our last day in Chicago. The vert contest
was in the morning, and Peter and Cookiehead
were amped. Peter used the whole ramp, doing 5-
O grinds all the way across the ramp. 540's, and
backside crailslides at Mach 10. Cookiehead was
busting the biggest Madonnas and Alley-oop airs
high as a kite. Lance Mountain entered and did
some mean eggplants and nice backside airs. Chris
Gentry mixed and rhymed a mad variety of lip
tricks, while Bob Burnquist skated switch. Peter
didn't make the cut, Cookiehead made a couple
hundred bucks for 11th place, and it was all over.
The top 3 were all Australians: Tas Pappas, Ben
Pappas and Jason Ellis. It was the "Aussie
takeover," as Jason exclaimed.
Sunday, 10:00 pm Cleveland, Ohio
Back in Ohio, my home state. We met up with
Jim Hill and Brian Jules, owners of Westside
Skates, a rad little skateshop operated by skaters.
We watched the footage I had of the tour and drank
some Pabst Blue Ribbons with the locals. Later on
In the night, three girls came to the shop and want-
ed us all to go out to a bar for some more drinks.
You see, when you're in Cleveland, you party and
you end up doing crazy things. That's just the way
it's always been. We all piled into the van, and I
was wasted trying to drive to the bar. Once inside,
my vision was all blurry, and the girls were look-
ing better all the time. We mingled and Jingled and
all went back to Jule's house, where some of us
got kind of lucky. I just passed out.
Monday, August 51
Every time I go to Cleveland, I feel as though I
leave there feeling a bit more worn. We sessioned
the Lorain Public Skatepark, a concrete half-pipe
that goes right up to vert. It's a weird skatepark in
the middle of a residential area, but really fun to
ride. It seems they always make concrete parks in
the bad parts of town.
The tour definitely began winding down, and it
was time to go back home to Columbus, which was
only 2 1/2 hours away. We were all tired, had loads
of fun, and had a safe time.
We rolled into Columbus, stopped by my house.
ate sonic food, and headed to Dodge Skatepark
for an evening session, because there is no rest for
the wicked.